Press Release

14 May 2019

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Hotstar, India’s largest premium streaming platform, set a new global benchmark on 12th May 2019 when it registered an unprecedented reach of 18.6 million concurrent viewers during the finale of VIVO IPL 2019. The match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings saw the streaming giant soar past its earlier record of 12.7 million concurrent users, achieved during an earlier game in the same tournament. The 12th edition of the VIVO IPL began with Hotstar aiming to reach 300 million unique visitors, and by the end of the tournament, Hotstar had not only recorded in excess of 300 million users but also witnessed a 74% increase in watch-time as compared to last year, further cementing its position as the home of digital sports viewing in India.

This year, Hotstar streamed the matches on a completely new technology stack that used 10x lesser compute, while handling almost 2.5x times more traffic, rendering better quality at lower bit-rates than ever before. Deploying a breakthrough advertising product, Hotstar enabled advertisers to target refined cohorts of Hotstar’s 300 million audience, allowing ad targeting at unprecedented scale.

With its clutter-breaking marketing campaign #KoiYaarNahiFar, Hotstar rolled out a first-ever social cricket-watching experience to bring people together irrespective of their location. Cricket viewers across the country got the opportunity to invite their friends and family to Hotstar, enabling them to watch the matches together while simultaneously participating against each other in the Watch ‘N Play game. The #KoiYaarNahiFar campaign went wide and deep into India, and gained massive resonance with an unparalleled top of mind awareness level of 84%.

The interactive social layer added on before the tournament proved to be a tour de force for Hotstar, attracting a staggering 64.4 million users who engaged on the platform’s Watch ‘N Play social feature. These users answered 1.2 billion Watch ‘N Play game questions, and sent over 5.9 billion emojis and 43.5 million comments.

Commenting on the development, Varun Narang, Chief Product Officer, Hotstar added, “At Hotstar, we have an innate belief in delivering a game-changing viewing experience to our consumers through ideas that challenge the status quo. The achievements of this season once again bear witness to Hotstar being the most preferred sports destination for the country. With technology as our backbone and our all-round expertise in driving scale, we are confident we will continue to break global records and set new benchmarks with each passing year.”

VIVO IPL 2019 began on 23 March and concluded on 12 May 2019. The seven-week tournament was streamed live on Hotstar in eight languages. The streaming giant is now gearing up for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup that commences on 30th May 2019. Stay tuned to watch the matches LIVE on Hotstar.